Bengal mourns singing icon Sandhya Mukhopadhyay's demise

Mourning her death, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the singer as the 'queen of melody in Bengal'.

"Deeply saddened that Geetashree Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, the queen of melody in Bengal, is no more. Her departure creates an eternal void in our world of music and in the hearts of millions of her followers here and in the diaspora," she tweeted.

"I used to look upto her as my elder sister and this is a grave personal loss to me. She used to be the moving spirit in our Sangeet Akademi and we had conferred upon her Bangabibhushan( 2011), Sangeet Mahasamman ( 2012) etc," she said.

"We shall continue to pay our tributes to the departed genius," she said.

The Bengali film industry was left deeply saddened by the death of the legend.

Director Srijit Mukherjee tweeted: "Chiroghum chand, jhikimiki taaraa."

Another film director Raj Chakraborty said: "Legend Sandhya Mukherjee's demise has brought upon a dark day on Bengal. She'll forever be treasured in the hearts of her admirers. May her soul rest in peace."

Actor Prosenjit Chatterjee also expressed his sadness over the death of the actor.

Sandhya's body would be kept at Kolkata's Rabindra Sadan from 12 PM onwards on Wednesday and her funeral will be accorded with state honour after the West Bengal CM returns from north Bengal in the evening.

Padma Shri episode:

On Jan 25, the 90-year-old singer refused to accept Padma Shri, saying "the award was more deserving of a junior artist and not someone of her stature".

Major milestones:

Mukhopadhyay received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian state of West Bengal in 2011.

She also won the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for her songs in the films Jay Jayanti and Nishi Padma in the year 1970.

Career: Look back in wonder

Though classically trained, the bulk of her work consists of Bengali modern songs.

She began her career in Mumbai singing Hindi songs, starting with a song in the film Taarana in 1950.

She sang, as a playback singer, in 17 Hindi films.

She decided to come back to and settle in her home city Kolkata in 1952 due to personal reasons.

She married Bengali poet Shyamal Gupta in 1966. Gupta went on to write the lyrics for many of her songs.

Her best-known collaboration is with Bengali singer Hemanta Mukherjee with whom she sang numerous duets, primarily as playback for Bengali films.

Hemanta and Sandhya became known as the voices behind the pairings of the Bengali superstar Uttam Kumar and his numerous heroines, most notably actress Suchitra Sen.

Besides Hemanta Mukherjee's compositions, her largest body of work is with Robin Chattopadhyay and Nachiketa Ghosh.